MSFT and Cray Team Up For Home Supercomputer

This week, Microsoft [MSFT] announced a new partnership with Cray Computers [CRAY], makers of the well-known CRAY-2 supercomputer. The deal will result in a small, reasonably-priced Windows-based supercomputer meant for home power users that require power-intensive computing environments.

The new CX1, as Cray is calling it, will run the new Windows Server software called HPC 2008, which stands for High Performance Computing. The machine, which is available immediately for $25,000 USD, which is beans compared to a full supercomputing workstation, and perfect for anyone deciding to rival SETI with their own homespun operation.

The machine will apparently be marketed to people in finance, aerospace, automotive and research capacities who do processor-intensive simulations and modeling. Until now, you could either use a corporate computing environment or build a system yourself, neither of which is an attractive option for a lot of the CX1's prospective buyers.

Microsoft, for its part, plans on expanding HPC Server 2008 beyond its parntership with Cray, hoping to capture some marketshare from Linux and Unix-based solutions. The software will be launched officially later this week.